intake manifold cracked

Hi peopleses-

I have two questions: (a) what tends to cause intake manifold to crack? (b) what other problems can a cracked intake manifold cause? I have a 96 Mustang GT vert with 91,000 miles. The car lost all it's coolant and began to overheat. That is when I took it to the shop. Not sure if the overheating caused the crack or if the crack caused loss of fluid and then the overheat. Ideas? Opinions?

Reply to
Scotter
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wow thanks for all the good advice!!! What if I have already put it in the shop and they already started work (NOT the ford dealer)? Think Ford will reimburse me?

Reply to
Scotter

i VAGUELY remember someone somewhere online getting reimbursed from Ford for the intake. Don't put too much stock in my memory though.

But, my best uneducated guess it would be like squeezing water from a rock.

Call the dealer. Also see if someone can get you a Ford corporate number if you have to put up a fight.

Reply to
Marc

I've been wondering the same thing myself... I had the same problem on my 96 GT, at around 90K as well, oddly enough. I had just pulled onto the freeway when I noticed a great cloud of white smoke behind me. Unfortunately it cost me $60 to tow it home. The Interstate turns out to be no place to diagnose a massive coolant leak, particularly when you can't seem to narrow down where it's coming from! Where did yours crack? Mine sat ignored for a few weeks (with the expectation that since I couldn't find an obvious cause of the leak, it may cost me) when one day I noticed a 2-3 inch long hairline crack hidden behind the alternator. By that time, I've learned that it was a covered repair by Ford, but they wouldn't reimburse towing and ignored my inquiries as to possible causes. My solution to spending another handful of money to get it to the dealer was to get a cheap roll of thin steel mesh ($1.50 from hardware store) and a tube of high temperature plastic epoxy ($4.00)and patching the crack up. Hey, the intake manifold was trash anyway, right? Roughed up the area around the crack with some sandpaper, plastered it with epoxy, layed a piece of steel mesh I'd cut and molded against the intake manifold and plastered over that with epoxy. It made the 50 mile trip to the "local" dealer without hesitation....quite frankly, I probably could have gone another 90K with my $5.50 steel reinforced epoxy fix. hehe My concern is that the dealer appeared to replace the plastic intake manifold with a plastic intake manifold...? Is there something else to this fix that I don't know about, or is this going to happen again?

-Wolf

"Scotter" wrote in message news:uZBTa.92277$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.austin.rr.com...

Reply to
Wolfgang

You know, while I'm on the subject...a lot of coolant bathed the interior of the engine compartment when that intake manifold cracked and since then (been over a year) when the engine comes up to temp, there's a squealing noise which I THINK is coming from the alternator. It doesn't make the noise when the engine is first started, or when I turn the alternator by hand. I've tried high temp/high pressure grease around all the pulleys, but haven't had any luck. Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to get rid of this hig pitched squeal? Thanks!

-Wolf

Reply to
Wolfgang

The problem is due to the fact that the mustang is not offically exported there. As far as I know the only offical export market outside north america for the current mustang is Austraila.

Reply to
Brent P

Please read my previous post in this thread. If the problem is what I guess it is, small changes in part design and/or changes in the tooling can correct the issue by changing the location where the plastic flow comes together in the mold.

What worries me is that in later models they've supposedly gone to a metal insert of some sort in that area. This makes me think that they may have not been all that successful in correcting the problem. Hopefully they just did it to avoid the problem all together when they had to make new tooling for other reasons.

Reply to
Brent P

Factory DEFECTIVE manifolds. WELL documented issue on 4.6L engines.

The "New Improved" plastic manifolds are reinforced with a metal plate inside the front coolant passage (where the defect is located).

Reply to
Katmandu

Actually, the entire coolant crossover is made of aluminum, in the same fashion as the '02+ intake manifolds.

Reply to
Keith

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